How much can a landlord charge for a rental application fee in New York?

No application or processing fee is permitted. The only application-stage charge allowed is reimbursement for a background check and a credit check, capped for both together at the actual cost or $20, whichever is less.

Does a landlord have to give a receipt for an application fee in New York?

Yes — New York requires a receipt for application-stage money.

Does New York have a reusable tenant screening report law?

Thirty-day window: where the applicant provides a copy of a background check or credit check conducted within the past thirty days, the landlord must waive the screening charge.

Can a landlord charge a holding deposit in New York?

A separate holding fee or deposit to reserve a unit is not permitted; the prohibition covers any payment demanded before or at the beginning of the tenancy except the capped screening charge and payments another statute or regulation authorizes.

What can a landlord charge for a rental application in New York?

Verified August 25, 2026 All New York topics →

Check your municipality. New York does not preempt local rent regulation — city or county ordinances may impose rent caps, notice rules, and fee limits that are stricter than the state-level rules on this page and are not covered here. Verify your municipality's ordinances before relying on any figure below. Verified local pages: New York City , New York municipalities outside NYC .

What the state record says

New York runs several rent-regulation regimes at once. Rent-controlled and rent-stabilized units follow DHCR rules with annual increases set by Rent Guidelines Boards, and a separate 2024 Good Cause Eviction law limits increases in covered units. The stabilization regimes are the NYC Rent Stabilization Law and the Emergency Tenant Protection Act, administered by DHCR and significantly strengthened by the 2019 HSTPA. The Good Cause Eviction law (RPL Article 6-A) applies in NYC and in localities that opt in. For covered units, a rent increase above the lesser of 5% plus CPI or 10% is presumptively unreasonable and can defeat an eviction for nonpayment of the increase.

Legislative changes ahead — not yet in force. The rules on this page reflect the law in force today. The following measures would change it:

S4856 (2025-2026 session) — Would amend GOL 7-108(1-a)(e) to extend the security-deposit return/itemized-statement deadline from 14 days to 30 days after the tenant vacates.Status: In Senate Judiciary Committee. Referred 2025-02-13; re-referred 2026-01-07 for the second year of the 2025-2026 session (routine). Assembly same-as: A2652. Not enacted as of the checked date. (checked 2026-07-08).
A9294-A (2025-2026) — Would add a new section 238-b to the Real Property Law requiring a landlord to give a prospective tenant a written statement of the tenant screening criteria used to evaluate applications before accepting any fee, deposit or screening information. The statement would have to list credit-history and minimum-score thresholds, criminal-history policy, prior rental history including past evictions, minimum income, and reference requirements, say whether a tenant screening report will be obtained and from which agency, and summarize the applicant's rights under federal and New York law regarding consumer reports. It would take effect on the one hundred twentieth day after becoming law.Status: On the Assembly floor calendar; ordered to third reading on May 29, 2026 after being reported from the housing, codes and rules committees. No passage vote is shown in either chamber. (checked 2026-08-25).
S10343 (2025-2026) — Senate companion to A9294. Would require a landlord to give a prospective tenant a written statement of the tenant screening criteria used to evaluate applications before accepting any fee, deposit or screening information. It would take effect one hundred twenty days after becoming law.Status: In Senate committee; referred to the judiciary committee on May 14, 2026. (checked 2026-08-25).
S363-B (2025-2026) — The New York junk fee prevention act. Would add a new article 22-C to the General Business Law requiring clear and conspicuous pricing and total-price disclosure. Its text does not name residential rentals or leases. It would take effect on the sixtieth day after becoming law.Status: Passed the Senate on May 12, 2026 by a vote of 40 to 20 and is now in the Assembly consumer affairs and protection committee. (checked 2026-08-25).
A9604-A (2025-2026) — Assembly version of the New York junk fee prevention act, reaching every offer or advertisement that carries a price for goods or services sold to consumers in the state. It would take effect on the sixtieth day after becoming law.Status: In Assembly committee; amended and recommitted to the consumer affairs and protection committee on April 21, 2026. (checked 2026-08-25).
S571 (2025-2026) — Would write broker's fees expressly into the existing ban on payments demanded before or at the beginning of a tenancy in Real Property Law section 238-a, making the statewide rule that a landlord may not pass its own broker's fee to a tenant. It would take effect immediately on becoming law.Status: In Senate committee; referred to the judiciary committee on January 8, 2025 and re-referred there on January 7, 2026. (checked 2026-08-25).
S6471-A (2025-2026) — Would regulate automated housing decision making tools, including notice to applicants that such a tool is in use and an explanation when an application is denied. The denial-explanation requirement would sit alongside the existing state denial-notice duty for consumer reports. It would take effect immediately on becoming law.Status: In Senate committee; amended and recommitted to the investigations and government operations committee, and re-referred there on January 7, 2026. (checked 2026-08-25).

New York bans rental application and processing fees outright and allows only one application-stage charge: reimbursement for a background check and a credit check, capped for both together at the actual cost or twenty dollars, whichever is less.

Cited to N.Y. Real Prop. Law § 238-a (1)(a) and 11 more New York statutes · Verified August 25, 2026

The ban is broader than the fee itself, reaching any payment demanded before or at the start of the tenancy unless another statute or regulation authorizes it, which is what leaves rent and the security deposit in place while ruling out a separate fee to hold a unit. The screening charge must be waived where the applicant supplies a background check or credit check run within the previous thirty days, and it may not be collected at all unless the landlord first gives the applicant a copy of the check and the screening company's receipt or invoice. State law also requires a denial notice: where a residential rental is denied or its charge increased because of a consumer report, the applicant must be told, given the reporting agency's name and address, and told of the right to inspect and receive a copy. New York does not require a landlord to disclose its screening criteria in advance and sets no refund rules for application-stage money, and it has no rental advertising or all-in pricing statute.

New York application fees at a glance

Application fee cap	No application or processing fee is permitted. The only application-stage charge allowed is reimbursement for a background check and a credit check, capped for both together at the actual cost or $20, whichever is less. New York bars a landlord, lessor, sub-lessor or grantor from demanding any payment for the processing, review or acceptance of an application, and from demanding any other payment before or at the start of the tenancy, unless another statute or regulation provides for that payment. The single exception written into the section is reimbursement for a background check and a credit check, and the two together may not exceed the actual cost or twenty dollars, whichever is less. The rule is statewide and has no small-landlord or unit-count exemption. Entrance fees at continuing care retirement communities, licensed assisted living providers, licensed adult care facilities, senior residential communities that have filed an offering plan with the Attorney General, and not-for-profit independent retirement communities offering personal emergency response, housekeeping, transportation and meals are outside the ban. A cooperative housing corporation may charge a prospective purchasing shareholder a managing-agent or transfer-agent fee.
Fee limited to actual screening cost	Yes
Screening charge rules	One cumulative charge for the background check and credit check together; it must be waived where the applicant supplies a recent check, and it may not be collected unless the applicant first receives a copy of the check and the screening company's receipt or invoice. The cap applies to the two checks combined rather than to each separately, so a landlord cannot charge twenty dollars for a credit check and twenty dollars again for a background check. Collection is conditioned: the charge may not be taken unless the applicant is given a copy of the background check or credit check along with the receipt or invoice from the company that ran it, which in practice means the screening has to happen and be documented. The charge must be waived where the applicant hands over a copy of a background check or credit check run in the previous thirty days. A cooperative housing corporation may recover the full actual cost, above twenty dollars, from someone applying to become a unit owner or shareholder; where that cooperative is supervised under article two, four, five or eleven of the private housing finance law, the fee must be reasonable and approved by the supervising agency.
Receipt required	Yes
Refund required in some circumstances	No statutory refund duty
Refund rules	No statutory refund duty
Disclosure before collecting	Before the screening charge is collected the applicant must receive a copy of the background or credit check and the screening company's receipt or invoice; separately, an investigative consumer report requires advance written notice and the applicant's authorization. The first duty sits in the fee statute itself: the charge may not be collected until the applicant has been given the check and the invoice or receipt for it. The second sits in New York's fair credit reporting article and applies to an investigative consumer report, meaning one built in part from personal interviews. Such a report may not be obtained unless the applicant has first been given notice and has authorized it, and the notice must say that a report may be requested and that on written request the applicant will be told whether one was requested and the name and address of the reporting agency, along with the right to inspect and receive a copy from that agency. New York does not currently require a landlord to publish or hand over its screening criteria in advance; bills to add that duty are before the Legislature.
Denial-notice duties (state law)	State law requires a denial notice naming residential rentals: where a rental or lease is denied, or its charge increased, wholly or partly because of a consumer report, the user of the report must tell the applicant, name the reporting agency and give its address, and state the right to inspect and receive a copy. New York's own fair credit reporting article puts the duty on the user of the report and lists residential rentals and leases expressly alongside credit and insurance, so this is a state obligation and not a restatement of the parallel federal rule. The duty is triggered by denial or by an increased charge, and it applies where the report was any part of the reason. A second subdivision requires the user to give reasons for an adverse action, but by its terms that one is limited to evaluating an application for credit and is keyed to the federal Equal Credit Opportunity Act, so it does not carry into the ordinary rental denial. Users are also barred from passing a report on to anyone without a legitimate business need connected to a transaction involving that person.
Reusable screening reports	Thirty-day window: where the applicant provides a copy of a background check or credit check conducted within the past thirty days, the landlord must waive the screening charge. New York's portability rule works on the fee rather than on the report. The statute directs that the charge be waived when the applicant supplies a copy of a check run in the previous thirty days, so an applicant who brings a recent report pays nothing at the application stage. The section stops there: it does not say the landlord must accept that report in place of running its own screening, it sets no standard for what makes a supplied report acceptable beyond how recent it is, and it creates no marketplace, certification or applicant-pays program of the kind some other states have adopted.
Holding deposits	A separate holding fee or deposit to reserve a unit is not permitted; the prohibition covers any payment demanded before or at the beginning of the tenancy except the capped screening charge and payments another statute or regulation authorizes. The application-fee ban is written broadly and is not limited to money labeled an application fee. It reaches any other payment, fee or charge demanded before or at the start of the tenancy, which takes in a deposit or fee to hold a unit while a lease is prepared. The exception for payments that another statute or regulation provides for is what preserves rent and the security deposit, which the General Obligations Law caps at one month's rent for a unit that is not rent stabilized. New York has no statute that uses the term holding deposit or sets rules for how such money would be handled, because the underlying charge is not allowed in the first place. The housing-type and cooperative exceptions to the fee ban apply here as well.
Rental fee-transparency rules	No rental fee-transparency statute
Penalty for violation	The fee rules themselves carry no damages provision, but any lease or contract term waiving or limiting them is void; the consumer-report notice duties carry actual damages, punitive damages for a knowing and willful failure, and costs and attorney's fees. Two different enforcement pictures apply. The application-fee and screening-fee rules in the Real Property Law contain no civil penalty, damages figure or enforcement subdivision; what backs them is a provision making void as against public policy any lease or contract term that waives or limits the section, so a landlord cannot contract out of the cap or the waiver duty. The notice duties under New York's fair credit reporting article are backed by money: a consumer reporting agency or a user of a report that knowingly and willfully fails to comply is liable for actual damages, punitive damages in whatever amount the court allows, and the costs of a successful action with reasonable attorney's fees; where the failure is negligent rather than knowing, liability is for actual damages plus costs and reasonable attorney's fees. Those remedies reach the rental denial notice and the investigative-report notice and authorization duties.

Cite this page: "Landlord Atlas, New York Application & Screening Fee Laws (verified August 25, 2026), landlordatlas.com/laws/application-fees/new-york/" — free to cite and quote with a link (how these records are verified). Every figure above is cited to the New York statute in the citations section below.

Notes and caveats

The cap is for both checks combined — Twenty dollars is the ceiling for the background check and the credit check together, not for each one. Where the checks actually cost less than twenty dollars, the lower figure is the limit.
The twenty-dollar figure is fixed — It is written into the statute as a flat amount. It is not adjusted for inflation and no state agency publishes an updated number each year.
Housing types outside the fee ban — Entrance fees are not covered at continuing care retirement communities, licensed assisted living providers, licensed adult care facilities, senior residential communities that have filed an offering plan with the Attorney General, and not-for-profit independent retirement communities that offer personal emergency response, housekeeping, transportation and meals.
Cooperative purchases are treated differently — Someone applying to become a unit owner or shareholder in a cooperative housing corporation may be charged a managing-agent or transfer-agent fee, and may be charged the full actual cost of screening above twenty dollars. Where the cooperative is supervised under the private housing finance law, the fee must be reasonable and approved by the supervising agency.
The portability rule waives the fee, not the screening — A recent report supplied by the applicant removes the charge. The statute does not say the landlord must use that report instead of running its own, and it sets no standard for the report beyond it having been conducted within the past thirty days.
What the fee statute does not reach — It sets no refund rules, no duty to disclose screening criteria before collecting, and no penalty of its own. Its backstop is that any lease or contract term waiving or limiting it is void.
Screening criteria disclosure is pending, not law — Bills in both chambers would require a written statement of screening criteria before any fee, deposit or screening information is accepted. Neither has been enacted, so no such duty applies today.
Local rules can add to this — New York City has its own requirements on disclosing fees in rental listings and on who pays a landlord's broker. Those are city rules; the statewide rules described here come from state law.
How the cost limit works — The permitted background-check and credit-check charge is tied to what the screening actually cost. The combined charge may be no more than the actual cost of the two checks or twenty dollars, whichever is the smaller figure, so actual cost sets the ceiling whenever it falls below twenty dollars. The twenty-dollar figure is a flat amount written into the statute; it is not indexed and there is no annually published number to follow.
What the receipt duty covers — A documentation duty attaches to the money before it changes hands. The landlord may not collect the background-check or credit-check charge unless the applicant is given the receipt or invoice from the company that conducted the check, together with a copy of the check itself. The duty runs to the screening company's receipt or invoice rather than to a receipt for the applicant's own payment; New York does not separately require a payment receipt for application-stage money.
When money must come back — Real Property Law § 238-a, the section that carries the application-fee rules, contains no provision requiring return of application-stage money in any circumstance. Its subdivisions cover the fee ban and the capped screening charge, late rent charges, dishonored rent checks, and the voiding of waivers, and nothing more. New York controls this money before it is collected, through a hard cap, a waiver duty and a rule barring collection without documentation, rather than through a duty to give money back afterwards. The return duties in the General Obligations Law are addressed to money deposited or advanced as security for performance, which means security deposits.
Refunds — No trigger of the usual kinds appears in Real Property Law § 238-a: nothing about the unit being filled or withdrawn, nothing about the applicant pulling out, nothing about screening that is paid for but never run, and no deadline or mechanic for returning money. What the section does instead is stop an overcharge before it happens, by capping the screening charge at the lesser of actual cost or twenty dollars and by barring collection until the applicant has the check and the screening company's receipt or invoice in hand.
Advertising and fee transparency — The state's general consumer protection provision on deceptive acts and practices sits in article 22-A of the General Business Law and does not by its terms address rental advertising or rental fees, so it is context rather than a rule for this topic. Two junk-fee bills are moving in the 2025 and 2026 session, one of which has passed the Senate, but neither is law and neither names residential rentals or leases. In practice the application-stage question is already answered by the fee ban in the Real Property Law: there is nothing extra to disclose because there is nothing extra a landlord may charge an applicant.

Common questions: New York application fees

Each answer is the verified value from the table above, restated as a direct answer. Free to quote with a link to this page.

How much can a landlord charge for a rental application fee in New York?: No application or processing fee is permitted. The only application-stage charge allowed is reimbursement for a background check and a credit check, capped for both together at the actual cost or $20, whichever is less.
Does an application fee have to be refunded in New York?: No statutory refund duty.
Does a landlord have to give a receipt for an application fee in New York?: Yes — New York requires a receipt for application-stage money.
Does New York have a reusable tenant screening report law?: Thirty-day window: where the applicant provides a copy of a background check or credit check conducted within the past thirty days, the landlord must waive the screening charge.
Can a landlord charge a holding deposit in New York?: A separate holding fee or deposit to reserve a unit is not permitted; the prohibition covers any payment demanded before or at the beginning of the tenancy except the capped screening charge and payments another statute or regulation authorizes.

Statute citations

N.Y. Real Prop. Law § 238-a (1)(a) (verified 2026) Official source
N.Y. Real Prop. Law § 238-a (1)(b) (verified 2026) Official source
N.Y. Real Prop. Law § 238-a (verified 2026) Official source
N.Y. Gen. Oblig. Law § 7-103 (1) (verified 2026) Official source
N.Y. Gen. Bus. Law § 380-c (a), (b) (verified 2026) Official source
N.Y. Gen. Bus. Law § 380-i (a) (verified 2026) Official source
N.Y. Gen. Bus. Law § 380-i (b), (c) (verified 2026) Official source
N.Y. Gen. Oblig. Law § 7-108 (verified 2026) Official source
N.Y. Real Prop. Law § 238-a (3) (verified 2026) Official source
N.Y. Gen. Bus. Law § 380-l (verified 2026) Official source
N.Y. Gen. Bus. Law § 380-m (verified 2026) Official source
N.Y. Real Prop. Law § 238-a (1)(a), (1)(b), (3) (verified 2026) Official source

How this record was verified: Direct read of the full text of N.Y. Real Property Law § 238-a and of General Business Law §§ 380-c, 380-i, 380-l and 380-m on the New York State Senate's Open Legislation site, together with General Obligations Law §§ 7-103 and 7-108 for the deposit boundary and the Real Property Law article 7 and General Business Law article 25 section lists for the negative sweep, plus a review of 2025 and 2026 session bills on the Legislature's own bill pages.